MATHUSLA: A Proposed Long-Lived Particle Detector for High-Luminosity LHC
Abstract
Beyond the Standard Model long-lived particles (LLPs) appear in many theories that address fundamental open questions, such as the hierarchy problem and the nature of dark matter. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) may be producing copious numbers of neutral LLPs with masses above a GeV, only for these sneaky particles to escape the main detectors without being spotted. To fill this gap, we have proposed MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles), which would be constructed on the surface above CMS and would take data during High-Luminosity LHC operations. The detector would be composed of several layers of solid plastic scintillator threaded with wavelength-shifting fibers that connect to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), and would monitor an empty, air-filled decay volume. The Conceptual Design Report (CDR) published in 2025 sets out a benchmark geometry of 40m x 40m x 16m, with a modular detector construction scheme that would allow data collection to begin as soon as the first module is installed. This proceeding documents the results of more detailed studies conducted since the CDR on the detector's potential location, mechanical engineering of modules, data acquisition system, cosmic ray backgrounds, event selection criteria, and trigger algorithms.
Related
- Precision luminosity measurement in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider
- Precision luminosity measurement in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider
- Particle geodesics, shadows and accretion disk luminosity of a Dehnen (1,4,5/2)-Schwarzschild black hole
- Data-quality monitoring of luminosity blocks with ATLAS Open Data: an open benchmark and a learned within-run detector
- Detector performance at SHiP for cascade-produced long-lived particles
BibTeX
@misc{diamond2026mathusla,
title = {{MATHUSLA: A Proposed Long-Lived Particle Detector for High-Luminosity LHC}},
author = {Miriam Diamond and David Richard Curtin and Erez Etzion and Caleb Miller and Runze Ren and Steven Robertson and Heather Russell},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.34442},
eprint = {2610.34442},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34442},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - MATHUSLA: A Proposed Long-Lived Particle Detector for High-Luminosity LHC
AU - Miriam Diamond
AU - David Richard Curtin
AU - Erez Etzion
AU - Caleb Miller
AU - Runze Ren
AU - Steven Robertson
AU - Heather Russell
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.34442
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.34442
AB - Beyond the Standard Model long-lived particles (LLPs) appear in many theories that address fundamental open questions, such as the hierarchy problem and the nature of dark matter. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) may be producing copious numbers of neutral LLPs with masses above a GeV, only for these sneaky particles to escape the main detectors without being spotted. To fill this gap, we have proposed MATHUSLA (MAssive Timing Hodoscope for Ultra-Stable neutraL pArticles), which would be constructed on the surface above CMS and would take data during High-Luminosity LHC operations. The detector would be composed of several layers of solid plastic scintillator threaded with wavelength-shifting fibers that connect to silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), and would monitor an empty, air-filled decay volume. The Conceptual Design Report (CDR) published in 2025 sets out a benchmark geometry of 40m x 40m x 16m, with a modular detector construction scheme that would allow data collection to begin as soon as the first module is installed. This proceeding documents the results of more detailed studies conducted since the CDR on the detector's potential location, mechanical engineering of modules, data acquisition system, cosmic ray backgrounds, event selection criteria, and trigger algorithms.
ER -